1900PROTOTYPE

King C. Gillette has the revolutionary idea of disposable blades so thin and so strong they were deemed impossible to forge by MIT-trained scientists. By 1901, he’d proven them wrong with his breakthrough innovation.

1920NEW AND IMPROVED

Gillette® set out to create the first mechanical innovation since the creation of the company—to make the blade angle more accurate and improve the grip, as well as the opening and closing adjustments. The first “instrument of precision.”

1957ADJUSTABLE

The first adjustable razor with three settings was introduced—for light, medium, and heavy beards. Over time more settings were added, totaling nine. This was the company’s first distinctly mechanical effort at making a razor “share the work” of adjusting the blade angle to the face.

1965TECHMATIC

This was the first system razor with a ‘continuous band,’ spooled and retractable. It meant that the user would no longer have to touch the blade. This design was a highly stylized evolution of the original Techmatic, which had been a Gillette staple razor for over 30 years; an expression of the industrial design experimentation of the era.